Health journal Public Library of Science’s special issue on poverty and health tracked down 30 global health experts, asking them how to best help those living on less than $1 a day throughout the world—including how to provide care for those living with chronic diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis—ScienceDaily reports (sciencedaily.com, 12/31).

Commentators such as Bangladesh health official Mushtaque Chowdhury and Ethiopian health reporter Murugi Murekio asserted that combating hunger is the most crucial form of intervention. “Antiretrovirals are free,” Murekio told PLoS. “But mostly women can barely afford a meal a day and so this diminishes their capacity to live healthily with HIV.”

Other responses highlighted the importance of empowering women, promoting breastfeeding and mobilizing the developing world to take a more active economic role in supporting poorer countries.